The present invention relates to a recording and reproducing device for recording and reproducing signals in and from disk cartridges.
There have in recent years been developed disk cartridges comprising a cartridge made of hard material and a magnetic disk rotatably housed in the cartridge, the cartridge having a magnetic disk insertion slot and a shutter for opening and closing the insertion slot. When the disk cartridge is inserted into a cartridge insertion hole defined in a frame of a recording and reproducing device, the shutter is actuated in response to coaction between an opening and closing projection disposed in the recording and reproducing device and a shutter actuator projection in the disk cartridge for thereby opening the magnetic head insertion slot to allow recording and reproducing operations. When the disk cartridge is not in use, the magnetic head insertion slot is closed by the shutter to prevent dust or other foreign matter from entering the disk cartridge and adversely affecting future recording and reproducing operations.
However, there is a tendency of the shutter actuator projection to fail to engage the opening and closing projection sufficiently due to various outer dimensions of disk cartridges, dimensional errors and wear of the shutter actuator projection. This prevents the shutter from opening when the disk cartridge is loaded into the recording and reproducing device. Therefore, no recording and reproducing operation is possible, and a tip end of the magnetic head engages the shutter.